I highly recommend the Nikon D70 Digital SLR.  This was the camera we used at the Star of the Republic Museum in Washington, TX during their digitization project. Though the manual was cumbersome, once you force yourself through it ,  the camera is very user-friendly.  Canon Digital SLRs are also very nice, but I find that my hands always seem to be in the way of something important.  We invested in a good wide-angle lens and a macro lens, but I think the macro lens was used twice.  The wide angle lens met all of our needs for the types of artifacts we were photographing (mainly decorative items, some farming equipment and furniture, clothing and some quilts/sheets and other textiles).  I don't remember the specific type of tripod we used, but I recommend that it be solid- see if they will let you put it up in the store so you know that accidentally bumping into it won't knock it over.  And, as David said, copy stands do come in handy- we photographed all of our plates, utensils and handguns on one.

We purchased light tents from tabletopstudio.com (or check out ezcube.com) that worked very well for our small-large objects (excluding clothing, furniture and some of the farm equipment).  They were a solid color so nothing else got in the shot and the fabric diffuses the light evenly,  which makes photographing the object easier. You can also get covers for the front that have a hole for photographing anything reflective, or just to better light the object.  The only problem with them is that the "sweeps" inside of them got dirty and  wrinkled  very quickly, so they had to be washed and ironed frequently.  As for lights, we bought compact fluorescents 2100 Lumen sunlight rated bulbs that we placed in reflectors picked up at Home Depot.  The bulbs give off a very white light and even after being on for several hours the bulbs were still cool to the touch.  And, while we did purchase two professional light stands at the beginning of the project, we found out that cheap tripods worked just as well. This whole set up worked very well for us.   I can send pictures of the set-ups, if anyone is interested.

I'm not sure I recommend having the camera directly connected to the laptop during the actual photographing process.  It would certainly be nice to see the pictures immediately, especially because the little viewing screen is not always accurate, but I moved the camera frequently while taking the pictures and would worry that if there was a cord connected to a laptop, that accidentally somehow the laptop would be pulled off the table.  But maybe I'm just a klutz. 

I really suggest finding a local photography store and contacting them.  Let them know your budget and the specific types of things you'll be photographing to see what they recommend.

I hope this helps!  Good luck!

Maria K. VanVreede

Former Collections Asst. at the Star of the Republic Museum, Washington, TX

Currently, Registrar, National Mode Aviation Museum, Muncie, IN 

The views expressed in this email do not necessarily reflect the views of the company for which the author works